So I don't know if anyone saw the trailer for the reboot special, but they dropped the trailer for the upcoming special!


Well dang, they dropped the ball on this one, and makes me thankful they're gonna stick with the CGI (with classics sprinkled in) era characters. Although weirdly enough, unless if my imagination is messing with me, James' front looks like Large Scale version of Bachmann, like take a look and see if I'm tripping...!

I'd say the only thing that's holding LS Gordon/Henry from being made are the costs to make them. After all, I don't think anyone would be willing to shell out an expensive amount that's probably close to Emily, if not more than her RRP being sold....

IF they were to introduce any new engines for the LS range, realistically it would have to be either a repaint like turning James into "Origins James" or a rebuild like 'Arry and Bert, Sidney, or the Mainland Diesel... I mean we haven't seen anyone new aside from a repaint of Thomas' LBSC livery... However, IF they're also bold enough to make a new engine from scratch, Edward, Stanley, Mavis, Salty, or small engines like Bill & Ben that'll make it worth it to build two engines for the price of one.

Judging by the reference photos from the announcement page, I'd imagine they'll use the Large Scale models, face and all. For Percy, I'm sure they'll have to retain the chassis since it looks great on his old model. Thomas, however I'd imagine they'll use Stanley's wheels with the side rods to make him as accurate as possible.

You know, it makes me wonder: will they give Diesel 10 a smiling face or his "evil" grin face, just like the other Diesel? I'd imagine they'd have to give him the latter face just to make sure they don't repeat, well the latter model of Diesel where he initially had a happy face, but then also gained a grumpy face.

At this point, I would say if they were able to make an investment, and just like Henrietta and Hannah in Large Scale, they could very well dabble in doing Norman and Dennis as new toolings. HOWEVER, there's some factors to consider: considering that Dennis himself hasn't shown up past a cameo appearance in TGD, it'll be something Bachmann would have to think long and hard about because Norman, while relevant thanks to the CGI era, is also different in not only paintwork, but also his detailing like his face and buffers. Just like Diesel and Paxton, they'd have to create Dennis after Norman since he's the one that showed up more than Dennis, as well as them referencing CGI-based renders, in which Dennis's face would be completely different in size. HOWEVER, if they do say "ehhh screw it" and just slap Dennis's face onto the CGI model of Norman, I wouldn't be too surprised. Plus it'll somehow tie Dennis into the lore of being "Norman's Twin" only heard from magazines or something like that. I think this is where the dillema is the same for Splodge: is it worth it? 

The chances of Splatter and Dodge are there because Bachmann have made Arry and Bert models that don't have the stepladders on them, though the only thing that they need is a different face, maybe even the different sized faces because while the model series variants of them are small, Arry and Bert's faces became "Diesel" sized as it were, slightly bigger in other words. However, like Sydney, they can be adjusted to their face size easily as Bachmann did with the latter model.

For me, there's one "themed" set that I'd like to see: if they do a Christmas set, I'd like to see them do Percy instead of Thomas because Thomas himself has appeared in too many sets. As someone that purchased all 4 of the Christmas sets so far, I'd like to see a new engine part of this exclusive themed set like Percy or James even. If they do, I'd love to see Percy's decorated Mail van set as him delivering mail like from that one episode in Season 20, Letters to Santa, like maybe with his mail vans being decorated like the previous rolling stock, but exclusive to Percy, idk.

On the other hand, if they do James, I'd love to see them do a blue and green truck as a Christmas consist with gifts inside them, because they've already done red trucks in two sets, so at least something different, but still easy to do as based off of Season 9's Keeping Up with James when they collect a train of presents at the end. Again, up to them if they want to tackle that bit...

Quote from: Cheeky_ULP on June 13, 2025, 06:28:52 PMRecently I was thinking about how people have often requested Thomas, Percy and James get redesigns to bring them up to par to the newer engines in the Bachmann range. This led me to a conclusion that I am curious to see if people will agree with: while the Bachmann Thomas and Percy could use a complete overhaul, James only needs modifications here and there to bring him up to speed. I've made an illustration before to detail out each detail I think could be updated to make him more accurate.

 What do you guys think?

Also seeing that Thomas and Percy are getting retoolings, I can't wait to see if and when they'll tackle James as a new retooling, especially from an old post from last year+ detailing what needs to be done.

If they did announce James' retooling, they'll probably do him as a mid-year announcement like with Thomas and Percy.

So after watching their Thomas Tuesday video, it's interesting to note that they'll reuse Gordon's wheels to use on Flying Scotsman, just like how Stanley reuses Thomas's wheels. How fitting given that they're brothers, but at the same time, Gordon's chunky looking side rods look a little thick.... if it saves money to make it not too expensive, let's see how it turns out....!

Quote from: TrainFan97 on July 22, 2025, 05:35:39 PMWhether or not his second tender will be optional has yet to be determined. It should just have a standard hook-and-loop coupler so that he can also be run without it.

I think they're more likely going to recycle Spencer's chassis than Gordon's, as the more cost-effective way to get him made quicker. Hopefully by mid-2026, we should see the first unpainted sample of Flying Scotsman.

Despite the inevitably ugly price Flying Scotsman is going to have, he's still going to be a good seller, and should convince Bachmann to make Hiro as the next new tender engine for HO Scale following him. We might get other smaller engines like Whiff and Norman.

Also, I just noticed this thread's title has a typo.

I legit didn't notice the title of this thread having the typo until you mentioned it...! The excitement must've been that hyped that we didn't even notice that.

There's another question that's been on my mind now that the Flying Scotsman is gonna be made for next year: will he have a box packaging like the 009/HOn30 Scale Skarloey Railway characters? For a model like him, and well a unique one with TWO TENDERS, there's no way they'll want to store this model in the blister packaging they're used to using up until this point given how pricey I can imagine him becoming......

I'd also imagine they'd have to measure at least Gordon's overall boiler shape to match since they're similar in shape and size, but with different parts like the dome and running board for example, that's gonna be something I'm curious to see how they'll do for this...

Lastly, excluding the City of Truro, isn't this a 3rd Season Character alongside Oliver, Toad, Mavis, and the upcoming Bulgy to be released altogether in this range?? That's crazy to think about!

Comparing the render shown in the announcements, and then seeing the OG CGI version in this clip, wouldn't it make sense for them to use the render used CGI era? I mean it would make sense that seeing that as Gordon's brother, in terms of his face and boiler should be at least similar in size since they've been going for the CGI renders going from Diesel/Arry and Bert onwards.

I wouldn't be surprised if they used Spencer's wheels for him given that his wheels do look a bit bigger than Gordon's (looking at their Bachmann promo photos, and comparing them to the Flying Scotsman's CGI model, it would make sense if they went to use Spencer's seeing that probably to avoid using Gordon's chunky side rods he's got)...

This more than makes up for the lack of the 80th Anniversary set that got canceled due to the unexpected setbacks from earlier this year. I'm glad this is the surprise that we're genuinely excited for!

Now that I think about it, the easy add-on for James would the the Lamp, considering that both Oliver and Ryan both have these lamps that it would be easy to just now not use those old weird shaped lamps Thomas, Percy, and James have been using for some weird reason....

Boy, Sir Handel looks like if Nitrogen Studios went to the Talyllyn Railway again and redid their design of Sir Haydn just like when they went there to do measurements for the Blue Mountain Mystery special...! It makes me wonder if this is a testing ground for Bachmann to add the detailing not present from the 2012 CGI models of the narrow gauge characters (and to an extent, hopefully this'll mean if Duncan gets green-lit if a solution to find the balance between TV series model and Douglas' model can be made, just like Large Scale Diesel being uncanceled too)... If that's the case, I definitely appreciate the fact they went above and beyond to make Sir Handel as extra special as he is now...!

I'm glad this is the one time his CGI face is used here because while I loved his model series face, his Season 12 face was not so good looking... Like the others back in that season, they were hit-or-misses.....

I only hope that Bachmann can find a medium of making Duncan look like his Tallylyn counterpart. I mean at the very least adding the detail of Douglas would be ideal especially if they plan on making more Tallylyn railway counterparts of say Dolgoch, Midlander, etc.

Also I noticed that the likes of Beau, despite having the added buffers on his CGI model, doesn't have it on his HO scale model, which I welcome because the added buffers just looks weird on an engine like him. I hope that it's the case with Duncan since if they want to make real-life counterpart to sell in the future, they'd have to utilize the proportions of Douglas, at least in terms of the detailing and the boiler size, maybe as a middle ground to match both the CGI and real-life counterpart-the best of both worlds I'd say.